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Just like all of the main-stream Spiderman games, Web of Shadows is set within New York city, present day. The game opens with a scene from Spiderman's not so distant future, depicting a full scale Symbiote invasion being met by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. The scene begins on a rooftop with Spiderman pacing as time slows, S.H.I.E.L.D aircrafts and rubble being scattered everywhere in explosions before Spiderman dives from a rooftop into battle. This is the very first level, and acts as a solid basic tutorial, teaching the player how to fight and wall-climb. Once Spiderman repels the waves of Symbiotes from the street, he quizzes the operatives with the whereabouts of his girlfriend, Mary Jane. After finding her being escorted by Lucas Cage, Mary Jane shuns Spiderman after telling him to rid himself of the Symbiote suit that he adopted from a clash with Venom only a few days before. The scene closes and you appear in a timezone roughly a few days before the invasion.

Web of Shadows adopts the sanbox play style identical to the Spiderman 2, Ultimate Spiderman, and Spiderman 3 games. You navigate New York city, swinging from building to building, picking up and carrying out missions. The free-roam swinging is still at its core, identical to what gamers saw in the Spiderman 2 game that launched on the Playstation 2. Shaba, a development team known mainly for their participation in the Tony Hawks series, (focusing mainly on the character model motions) provide the elegance produced in every swing and attack. Combat is tweaked, allowing players to fight when wall-climbing and also introduces a chain attack style, in which you can link together attacks from leaping from opponent to opponent to add a more action-combat feel to the game. The main feature of the new game is whether you as the player make good or evil choices. At the very beginning of the game, Spiderman will inherit the well-known black symbiote suit which grants him super strength, whilst corrupting him at the same time. Activision have made the game so that you can switch between the red and black costumes at the press of a button, each costume with its own unique set of combos and consequences on the world around them. Occasionally the player will have to make a good or evil choice in some situations, making these decisions reward either red (good) or black (evil) points to the character, and will ultimately affect how you interact with the citizens of New York.

Depending on whether you are evil or good, you will also get the option to call forth allies. As you progress through the story you will unlock allies, whose data can be viewed on the in-game menu. If you adopt the red suit you will have the ability to call forth either Lucas Cage, Wolverine, or Moonknight, and if you wear the black suit you can call forth either Black Cat, Vulture, (insert 2 more here). To call for your allies you simply select them from a tab on the game screen using the D-Pad and then hold the down button to bring them to the field where they will fight for you and follow you until your power meter is depleted.